Letters to the editor: Performance pay is no help

As an educator, I am insulted by the idea of performance pay for teachers and principals based on student achievement ("State enters 'Race to the Top,'" Oct. 24).

Every day, my colleagues and I work in an elementary school where nearly 60 percent of our students are eligible for free and reduced-price meals. We work late designing lesson plans that will engage our students, bring work home and attend countless trainings. We spend a good portion of our paychecks on supplies and books. We take pay freezes and furlough days to keep schools open all year. We do this because we care. We are not motivated by money, but rather by a sense of responsibility to our community's children.

Performance pay implies that we are somehow holding back, that we have some magic way to improve student achievement within our grasp, but we are waiting to be compensated.

It is a ridiculous assumption, which at best will have no effect on achievement and at worst will damage our profession and our students.

AMY BARTIZAL Tigard

Let's help the homebound

As a long-time gerontologist, I share a special concern for the homebound. Bleak winter days can be especially isolating. An antidote is needed.

Let's consider trying conference call seminars with shut-ins. This was successfully done in Arlington, Va., a few years back. The cost is minimal and the benefits incredible.

Any of us can one day become homebound. Let's pave the way at present.

B. LEE COYNE Salem

Climate change is here

It is often saddening for me to read letters from climate change skeptics. They too frequently evidence passion over reason and focus on irrelevant issues, cite the opinions of fringe scientists or have a woefully poor understanding of Earth history.

Science is a consensus-based sport and the consensus is that humans are indisputably causing catastrophic changes to the climate.

First, humans have never lived in a greenhouse period. We evolved during ice-age cycles. Second, the change from cold to warm involves wholesale changes to biosphere and geography. Third, the rapidity of this change is largely unprecedented. And, fourth, humans influence climate today by way of the same mechanism that dictated past climates: the carbon cycle.

True, we don't know the exact consequences of warming. But we didn't know the exact consequences of a deteriorating ozone layer either. The precautionary principle, a long-standing tenet of international environmental law, requires action even in the face of scientific uncertainty.

MICHAEL KITTELL Lake Oswego

Independent influence

In response to David Sarasohn's " In recent polls, GOP limited to Southern comfort" opinion piece, and the dubious "recent polls" upon which Sarasohn relies, The Oregonian's readers would have to believe that only seniors in Southern states object to the proposed $500 billion in Medicare cuts to finance the so-called "health care reforms" (Oct. 23).

Readers would have to believe that only Southern state voters fret over President Obama's two-month delay and dithering in response to his Afghanistan commander's request for additional troops.

In short, readers are to believe that the trillion dollar-plus debt increase, the reckless bailout/stimulus spending and the "jelly-knee" foreign policy approach are all of no concern to voters in the north, east and western states.

To my mind, that's a tough swallow. So, please, listen up, independent voters nationwide. Apparently, you're simply mindless followers. After all, according to the "recent" polls to which Sarasohn refers, you won't in any way influence the outcome of future elections.

RUTH BENDLSouthwest Portland

Worth it to know why

If someone came up and smacked you in the face, you would wonder why.

In all of the years since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, I have not read where anyone explained the real reasons why we were attacked.

The Bush administration just gave the fatuous reply, "Because they don't like our way of life," and then proceeded to bomb Iraq.

What were the real reasons why we were attacked by al-Qaida? Before we decide to continue the fighting in Afghanistan, it would be nice to know why we were attacked in the first place. Billions of dollars have been spent in this war effort. The numbers only increase when the medical care costs for the wounded are included. Has the price we have been forced to pay been worth what we now have? In another eight years, where will we be? Still going down this endless road? How many hundreds of thousands of civilians will die while we seek revenge in this manner?

If our goal was to get the guys who did it, we could have done so for less then the trillion dollars we have already spent.

ANCIL NANCE Southeast Portland

Don't let Portland fail

In July, I was in San Francisco for a week on business. I was shocked at the current condition of itscity streets. People are on the streets day and night, begging for money and sleeping in doorways or on city benches. I did not see the numbers of tourists they used to have around that time of year. I don't know if there are homeless shelters or other resources in San Francisco, but there are clearly not enough.

I was with some of my Swedish friends during this time and they were absolutely appalled. They said that they may pay higher taxes than we do, but they were happy to do so to avoid people having no housing or health care.

You seldom, if ever, see homeless people begging for money or sleeping on the streets of Stockholm. I hope that Portland can provide enough resources to take care of our homeless population, especially during the cold winter months, and, in addition, keep our city a clean, welcome place for businesses, their clients, as well as visitors. What has happened to San Francisco should not happen to Portland.

JOAN FRAZER Southwest Portland

Vote yes on 66, 67

I'm all for keeping jobs in Oregon; that's why I'll be voting yes on Measures 66 and 67 this January.

Like many Oregonians, I lost my job earlier this year. I've found another job and I can work every week day except Friday. That's the day I have to stay home with my oldest child, because her school only has four-day weeks this school year. That's 39 school days cut from her education, and 39 days I won't be working.

Ninety-seven percent of individuals and 93 percent of small businesses won't pay an extra dime in taxes if 66 and 67 pass, but 100 percent of our children will lose more of the education they deserve if these measures don't pass. I'm asking corporations who do business in Oregon for their fair share. Join me and vote yes on Measures 66 and 67.

SARAH BARTEN Gleneden Beach

Hollowed Halloween

I suppose there is little chance that people mispronounce Halloween as Holloween, even when reminded that to hallow is to make holy and to hollow is to make hollow. But those few offenders have earned the un-coveted Hollow-wiener award -- and are welcome to it.